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Noticed you are from North Ms. You'll get as many answers to the best trainer as there are letters in the alphabet. There are some good trainers in Ms. and in Tn. Suggest you look into talking to people in the hunt test game and expand your search from there. Even though you don't want to run Hunt Tests these trainers will know what to do to get you the best they can out of your dog. Many Field Trial trainers won't be interested in training a gun dog. You have a young pup and lots of time to decide. Nothing wrong with narrowing your search down to a few in your area and then calling them to talk and see who fits you the best. Be prepared for years of training if your goal is to have the best dog at whatever camp you go to. I know several where you will have your hands full with that as a goal and know of several where it would be easy to be the best just depends on where you're hunting.

Happy Hunting. Gene

The Harps are great - but I think what Gene said above will prove to be true. I would definitely recommend Ronnie Lee. He's a great trainer, and an avid duck hunter himself.

If I lived as close to Joe & Scott as you do, I wouldn't look any farther. They train for FTs mainly, but do train gun dogs as well. They are both avid hunters, Scott ran a few HTs when he first started years ago & has judged SRS, so he knows what that entails. They have trained Labs, Goldens, Chessies, Boykins, Weims, etc. Heck they even had 2 silvers in training this year! The big plus though that I see is, is that you are close enough to day train and learn yourself!!!

If I lived as close to Joe & Scott as you do, I wouldn't look any farther. They train for FTs mainly, but do train gun dogs as well. They are both avid hunters, Scott ran a few HTs when he first started years ago & has judged SRS, so he knows what that entails. They have trained Labs, Goldens, Chessies, Boykins, Weims, etc. Heck they even had 2 silvers in training this year! The big plus though that I see is, is that you are close enough to day train and learn yourself!!!

x2 - Joe and Scott are good new handler trainers as well. It only hurt for a minute and I only have a few scars.

If I lived as close to Joe & Scott as you do, I wouldn't look any farther. They train for FTs mainly, but do train gun dogs as well. They are both avid hunters, Scott ran a few HTs when he first started years ago & has judged SRS, so he knows what that entails. They have trained Labs, Goldens, Chessies, Boykins, Weims, etc. Heck they even had 2 silvers in training this year! The big plus though that I see is, is that you are close enough to day train and learn yourself!!!

Scotts number is 901-734-2984

That's pretty cool that they do both. I was under the impression most FT trainers didn't train gun dogs. Learn something new every day, huh?

On a side note, I wonder how they accomplish the logistics of that? Seems like it would be super difficult to pull that off successfully like they do. I've been to their kennel once several years ago to drop off a bitch to be bred and watched them train for a little while. It was a FT set up when I was there. They were super nice.

That's pretty cool that they do both. I was under the impression most FT trainers didn't train gun dogs. Learn something new every day, huh?

On a side note, I wonder how they accomplish the logistics of that? Seems like it would be super difficult to pull that off successfully like they do. I've been to their kennel once several years ago to drop off a bitch to be bred and watched them train for a little while. It was a FT set up when I was there. They were super nice.

Those 2 are very efficient with their time. Many days, their trial dogs can see between 2-4 setups. Generally, they can use all or part of the trial dog setup for the gun dogs as well. They just keep pulling dogs off the truck and running them with minor modifications depending on their goal.

The original post suggest he/she wants the "best" dog for hunting. As the additional threads get posted we learn the "best" dog is for the duck hunting. His pup is 13 weeks old and from "good" bloodlines.
A whole bunch of questions start poopping into my mind.
1. What have you done with your pup so far?
2. What experience do you bring to the table that you could properly care for and handle the best trained duck dog out there?
3. What literature and programs are you familar with so you can have an intelligent conversation with an accomplished pro trainer who would be working with you and your dog?
4. What time are you goiing to put into learning to be the "best dog handler" at the camp?
5. Is your "best" duck dog going to be your companion or is it going to be crated/kenneled until the duck season rolls around?
6. What have you done or failed to do with your other dogs?

I am not familar with a number of pro in the area but you certainly should have a broad selection seeing as you are nearly in the heart of area with the most dog trainers.

Good point Ironwood. Training for the best possible dog starts before you get them in for formal training with a pro. I would suggest the OP pick up a puppy program like Hillmann or Mertens. Lardy says something in his videos like "the worst mistake an owner can make is doing nothing because they didn't want to mess the dog up before getting them to the pro."

Get one or both of those puppy programs, get with a good pro, and think about what Ironwood said. Oh, and most importantly, have fun and enjoy and make sure the dog is having fun.